Tag: tresppassing
When Trespassing and Poaching is Not Enough
Several months of the 2022 spring turkey chasing have concluded with only one shooting incident reported across our great nation, we now bump it up to two. This one I will suggest represents a micro fraction and a stark contrast to the dedicated an ethical turkey hunters I know and respect. I am more than willing to extrapolate that out to the several million turkey hunters that enjoy this time honored tradition without incident every season.
In Grundy County, Missouri, it is reported that two poachers( (it is inappropriate to call them hunters,) trespassed onto another property after a gobbler they were pursuing. They subsequently killed the gobbler. While breasting out the bird, they were approached by two lawful hunters. One of the poachers shot at the two hunters while grabbing the bird and attempting to flee.
Both brothers were charged with numerous wildlife game violations and the 22 year old shooter is currently held on $25 thousand bond for felony weapon charges.
Turkey Hunter Courtesies, Ethics, Refresher Course 101
New York State spring turkey regular season opens in a little more than a week away. With nearly three quarters of a million turkey tags spoken for it is a large group from all walks of life, experiences, and wild turkey pursuing skill levels. It is prudent to review some of the most basic desirable courtesies, ethics and humanities towards fellow turkey hunters, land owners and the quarry we seek. My comments are from a perspective of a quarter century of fall and spring seasons, many states, many tags filled. I do not fret about harvest success as the hunt provides so much in so many ways, and manage well enough to find the most foolish and the least intelligent gobblers to be had. My friends will back me on this.
Turkey Hunter Courtesies
As a dedicated aficionado of the time honored pastime you may have spent the entire winter observing flocks, taking notes on monster gobblers. As the annual breeding ritual repeats itself as it has through the centuries, you may track with much due diligence. The miles of boot leather locating roost trees, strutting zones, travel patterns both feathered and human, have you well prepared to lay out the most well engineered strategy. Your foolproof plan has you back at the diner by 6:15 AM opening day with a tagged bird in the truck and a story to tell.
Opening day at 4:30 AM, Elmer Fudd who hunts this very spot every year carrying the oldest known working blunderbuss of questionable suitability is viewed leaving his 1985 Ranger and is 50 yards in, waltzing down the very trailhead you are set on to begin your assault. What do you do?
Do the phrases of “well it’s public land, he don’t own it, I can go wherever I wan’t,” “I have permission from the landowner, just as much as he does, I’ll park right behind him,” or “Screw him, I’ll sneak around and set up between him and the roost” come to you as plausible choices? Read on:
- An ethical and courteous hunter moves on to other hotspots to try. As a dedicated participant you have a long list of hot spots with known quantities of lusty gobblers with matching hen ratio. Pay it forward as you will benefit from the same courtesy. Your fellow brethren will have an unhindered set of circumstances to match wits with a gobbler. It is fair and reasonable to have the same for ourselves as we engage a mouthy gobbler.
- Revisit the same spot later in the morning, as the hunter may leave after a few hours. It is a productive strategy to arrive later after the gobblers are done with their hens and reviewing possibilities they heard earlier. Birds worked at first light can be very eager after being warmed up. Think of it as 1:55 AM at your favorite bar and it’s last call. If it is going to happen the gobbler will be in a hurry to get to you.
- Should you be of the persuasion that pulls up next to a truck already there and proceed to intrude on the hunter already set up you can rightfully be accused of unseemly poor behavior and lack common courtesy towards your fellow turkey hunting brethren. Over the years I have come across many exclaiming they will and can go anywhere they want to, period. On its face it is either ignorant or a form of harassment. If you find yourself at odds with this condemnation, during a much needed session of soul searching you seriously need to answer why your enjoyment of the turkeywoods should come at the expense of another.
- Accosting a hunter already in position working a gobbler or while intruding, attempting to out call, flank or simply bust the bird off of them is a deliberate act of contempt for a fellow hunter. If you find this to be judgemental, it is, no apologies
- There are times an unintended intrusion occurs from more than one way to enter a set of woods or from those that run the ridges and cover appreciable distances in a given morning. As a courteous turkey hunter when discovering you are intruding:
- Assume first that hen talk is from a hunter, pay heed and respect.
- Do not wave or issue turkey calls, assume motion or calling may be interpreted incorrectly, follow safety rules.
- Back out quietly if safe to do so and without further disturbing the hunt.
- If you cannot reasonably back out, stay your position and silently bear witness to the hunt in front of you.
Land Owner Courtesies
In a closely related topic, we as turkey hunters ought to be mindful of and respectful of the public grounds we are generously allowed to access as well as the private property of our friends, neighbors and of others with permissions to access their lands.
No signage is not a carte blanche invite with special privileges. If a posted sign or ask permission first sign reads as an invite to you, then my words are little more than annoying. Far too many land owners post their properties in response to those that disrespect their property rights. In New York you need to ask for landowner permission, whether signage is put up or not. Whether LEO’s or ECO’s will enforce the property rights laws on the books or whether a judge will toss it out, it is a breach of ethics. It may work as a loophole to get out of a fine, jail time or a difficult in your face encounter but you will leave making a bad impression on the land owner, and give us turkey hunter’s a black eye collectively. Personally, I never have enjoyed hearing someone denied permission with the land owner stating “You turkey hunters…”
- Visit prospective property owners off season, after season to gain permission, be courteous, be willing to help them out, volunteer to help with chores.
- Showing up the week of the opener may result in more no’s than yes’s and it makes a poor impression.
- Landowners want those they allow on their properties to be courteous and respectful of their lands during season and offseason. Building land owner relationships may result in a lifetime of access and opportunities that come from it. Make the effort. Taxes are very high in New York. Trust me, as a landowner, offers to help relieve any long list of chores are appreciated.
- What ever permission your 3rd, twice removed cousin or great great grandfather’s high school buddy had to a property has no relevance in law or ethical perspective of permissions to hunt. Unless you hold the title, pay the taxes, whatever anyone in your tribe may have done or had access to decades ago or over the many owners from changing hands is irrelevant, entirely moot.
- Leave gates as you find them, a farmer will more than appreciate it.
- Use common sense when using your truck, atv, utv as you’ll sour your privileges in a hurry if you tear up a clover field, or freshly planted cornfield.
- Treat others you come across (unless determine to be trespassing) as you would the landowner.
- You are being afforded access to tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of prime forests and fields. it is a generous privilege. Let that be the basis for any actions or thoughts you may entertain. On public ground it is the same, but overseen by those we elect to manage it. In New York we have access to thousands of acres of hunting lands and waterways to fish. Treat it as the great resource it is and that we all enjoy.
- If the way you treat other hunters or conduct yourself varies according to hunting private vs. public lands you may not have the best intentions. Ethics are not defined by any map program I am aware of.
- Diplomacy and good will is always warranted as you are a guest. It is essential even in the most difficult situations that arise from friends of the landowner, often times from loose definitions of family. Your ego or perceived rights are quickly refuted and revoked in a denial of permissions should you fail the wisdom in this. A landowner is not obligated to be a referee nor signed up to endure headaches over your privilege or that of others.
- On public grounds even the most difficult personalities merit diplomacy and effort to calm things down. If Illegal acts are involved an ECO can do the job required, if rude and inappropriate you may not persuade them to remorse and correction of their errant ways. You are not the Jackass whisperer, and it does you no good service if one cannot tell whom the jackass is during a dispute or altercation. Take the high road… Always.
Respect Of Your Quarry
What is sometimes very controversial is ethics of hunting methods. My intent here concerns a clean ethical kill/harvest, safety, care of table fare. Methods are varied in both ethical perceptions and legal and civil penalties by states, and regions. My negative opinion on reaping and fanning does not ring true for the massive open fields in the midwest, just as feeders in the regions of south Texas are not allowed up north. Unless you get off the keyboard, give your pro hunter rhetoric a break and lay down some boot leather in many of the places gobblers roam, you may find other perspectives to be foreign and difficult to comprehend much less understand.
As an observer of wildlife in a most inspired way, it is a respect for and in awe of all god’s creatures. As stewards of our lands, and our role in the natural order of living things I firmly assert that it is the time honored pursuit of hunting that dates further back than recorded history. It is a reverent respect that is appropriate. Our quarry perishes in that pursuit and becomes sustenance for our bodies, and in keeping with grand design as hunter gatherers. As ethical hunters we conduct ourselves in a sense of fair chase vs. filling a shopping cart at the local Piggly Wiggly, or up North at the local Wegmans or Price Chopper (no endorsements intended or implied)
Vegans claim that animals are not utilized or perish in their diets, but under a more thorough review the claim falls short when examining what wildlife habitat is altered/eliminated and what “pests” are exterminated to provide the gathering side of our diets. The equation is not so straight forward to produce consumables. The “Air Diet” has not gained that much in popularity.
As an ethical hunter and in the concepts of fair chase you owe it to the quarry you chase:
- Fully pattern your shotgun or dial in your archery tackle to produce a decisive clean kill at a known distance that you can reliably repeat.
- Expend any effort to reduce probability of equipment failure by maintenance, and routine pattern testing well before opening day.
- Acquaint yourself to become expert with distance estimation. Rangefinders are effective tools to reaffirm your estimates.
- Hail Mary or a golden BB as promoted by long shots and must kill by any means and all costs as a decision is a lack of respect and a willingness to gamble at far lesser odds that you will not maim, or mortally wound to die later. It is in many ways reprehensible and a confliction of misguided ego.
- Should you wound a gobbler which is not a desired event for any ethical hunter, you owe every effort to recover and bring a swift end to a less than decisively lethal shot if required.
- As an ethical hunter. legal hunting hours, applicable games laws, legal hunting methods, and safe weapon handling is followed and expected of others.
- A clean decisive kill requires clear sight picture of the head and neck, or commonly known as the boiler room containing vital organs of heart and lungs, Sight picture to also include a clear and safe foreground and background. You owe me that. I owe you the same.
- Sound or shadow shooting is in plain english unsafe, reckless and unethical. It is also an act of negligence.
- Take proper care of the game animal to produce the best possible table fare. as it is a precious resource.
- As a gobbler’s behavior is governed by thousands of years of honed instinct, a will to outwit all known predators, you will not win the day each time afield if measured by the kill. Over time, your reverence, your learned respect, it will be revealed the hunt itself is the reason you are there…
To hunt and fish in my home state of New York is a privilege that after all these years I am still in awe of. The perspective that I express here in reviewing some of the basics comes from many sunrises in the turkey woods. The hefty feathered carries over my shoulder while returning home, chasing turkeys in the snow over an excited weimaraner, and far too many days to count of just resting up against a towering maple, taking it all in, are all in part of being at peace with my surroundings. In that perspective, the reverence, respect and regard for the feathered monarchs of the turkeywoods and my fellow turkey hunters is a most natural thing.
-MJ
© 2018 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
. #turkeyhunting #oldturkeyhunter #wildturkey #turkeywoods #respect #ethics #courtesy
Trespass In NY- Turkey Hunter? Deer Hunter? Fisherman?
For those of you that are not familiar with the great Empire State, it is a very short drive from one of the largest cities in the world, even shorter drive from the lesser known cities to find yourself amongst the great farmlands, forests, mountains and fisheries of New York where I call home. Despite bizarre politics, stifling regulations, punitive taxation (#1, highest in the Nation) that has driven out industry and the prosperity that goes with it, it is one of the most resource diverse states when you come to appreciate the four million-plus acres of public lands, nearly another million more acres under conservation easements, the raw natural beauty, and recreational opportunities we have here. I reside with my bride in one of the seven valleys of Cortland County which I am more than fond of. The topic at hand actually applies across our great nation and not solely unique to New York. As I truly love what I have here as my little piece of paradise, I’ll refer to my beloved state as my frame of reference.
With such highly coveted resources, much of which is available to everyone as public lands and public waterways, the subject of trespass, destruction of property, theft and other criminal behavior appears to be more common even in the off seasons, despite numerous large tracts of state and federal lands for all to share. My comments are aimed specifically towards sportsmen and sportswomen. Criminals, common thieves, polluters are not likely to be moved or swayed by any opinions you, or I may have or convey. As a landowner and as a member on a hunting lease from time to time I have that set of perspectives. I also hunt and fish on a mix of state game lands, waterways, and a fair amount of private holdings that have granted me the right to spend time on and enjoy. I’ll break down my thoughts in lists for each viewpoint.
As a hunter:
- Do we show ourselves as being fortunate and privileged to be granted access to private lands that another pay taxes on, farms, maintain for their business or homestead, manages for wildlife? Do we show respect for them and their property? Do we fundamentally understand that landowner rights take priority over any right or desire we may feel to hunt or fish?
- On lands that are commonly known for open access do we make it a point to learn of the owner’s name as a courtesy to thank them or to learn of any concerns they may have? It helps to avoid future problems. Do we take for granted these lands and treat them as a free for all, our personal playgrounds?
- On state lands do we treat it as if we own it? In a roundabout reasoning we do via the income taxes that are paid. Being respectful, having regard for our resources should not be a conditional thought or action.
- Challenging a landowner or another hunter, in general, is not the smartest idea, nor a step in improving hunter/landowner relations. The exception is the arrogant slob hunter who is not authorized to patrol a property or trespassing themselves and falsely claiming a spot. Too many stories of others trying to throw people off that have permission including landowners off their own property.
- Items we may come across while hunting without regard to who owns the land, do we leave undisturbed, unmolested unless clearly lost (such as a jacket, wallet, personal camera, game call). Stealing or destroying treestands, game cameras, blinds, traps, etc. is a despicable, lowly act to inflict on a fellow hunter. Even when we find such items on our own places that are not supposed to be there, do we attempt to find out whom they belong to first and get the word out? If that fails to produce a result in instances I have come across, I bring it back to the house and attempt to find the owner while notifying the county Sheriff’s/ NYSDEC ECO, and they can retrieve their items after an intimate chat with law enforcement. Charges may apply if egregious, or not your first time trespassing. In principle do we take another’s property while not knowing fully the circumstances.?
- While being respectful of the lands hunted, it is good practice to extend that to fellow hunters. Having someone purposely interfering with your time in the woods is greatly unappreciated. A common occurrence with the mentality of having to get your gobbler or buck before the other hunter does. As sportsmen, sportswomen we are better than that.
- Access to hunting properties has dropped while the behavior of some fellow hunters deters hunter recruitment or makes the hunting experience on state lands or private lands less desirable for the recreational hunter, fisherman. The same foolishness, monkey business that is assumed all too common on public grounds in known to be just as much a problem on private holdings. Private land is not immune to breaches in ethical or sportsmanlike conduct. There is no legitimate excuse for treating fellow hunters and fishermen in a poor manner that occurs. Trespass shows disrespect for the landowners and fellow hunters alike
- Of our sport, the passions we so dearly love. are we humbled and appreciative of the great forests and waterways? Are we humbled and appreciative of our fellow hunters and fishermen that we share these great resources with?
As a landowner or lease/club member:
- Vast amounts of money are involved to purchase, pay county & school taxes, or fees to lease. Land taxes have risen well ahead of inflation to the tune of 2X-3X over other states in the union. It can be viewed as legalized theft in some lines of thought. As a landowner, it is a thought process quickly learned and a reality. Leases have risen due to taxes, and the popularity of outdoor-focused leasing /realty companies. The continual loss of farms and the increase in development further increase the cost and demand for recreational properties. Maintaining a property for wildlife involves plenty of funds and sweat equity.
- Because your past three generations of family hunted there, it does not trump or replace courtesy, respect, or asking permission. Your ignorant boasting of entitlement to hunt wherever you want is a false premise. It is all too common a complaint about local hunters. Your family or those that passed on are not maintaining, nor paying taxes on the property. You can easily change that, be a great neighbor.
- Fishermen do not get a pass on self-granted rights to trespass as access to private honey holes is not an entitled right of way. In New York, navigable waters have a separate set of laws that apply.
- Poor behavior, trespass, destruction of property, theft, infighting between hunting parties, poaching, ignoring specific instructions, or requests are all legitimate reasons why landowners say no or rescind your permissions. As a landowner saying no is their right that may or may not come with an explanation.
- It is a major irritation to expend time and money to thwart, report and or prosecute trespassers only to see them given a slap on the wrist or a minor fine. $50 to$250 fines are not enough to deter the disrespect, the ignorance that exists in the hunting community.
- How many of you visit to help a landowner in the offseason or in season, send thank you’s or visit to thank in person? Do you invite them for a home-cooked meal, or in general conduct yourself as a good neighbor, an ethical hunter that appreciates the privilege?
With the acceptance of game cams as scouting tools, it has become an additional season of installing and checking in the summer months. With the competitive nature of some in our ranks, the quest for boon’r buck or record setting long beard or the best fishing hole in the county causes some to steal memory cards, game cams, or destroy them and any stands or blinds they come across. In the past few years, the frequency of this type of criminal activity is increasing if judged by posts on social media. Whether there is increased trespass or that we now have better tools to capture it is made far worst that it is being done in many occurrences by fellow hunters. Clicking through the various hunting groups on social media it is astounding the number of reports of tree stands stolen or rendered unusable, deer cams broke or stolen, SD memory cards stolen.
In the following list are links to NYS sites that deal specifically with trespass, regulations, posting info, etc. I have included other useful links as well as one to a prior blog on game cam strategies.
- Public Fishing Rights and the Landowner -NYSDEC
- Posting Information for Landowners, Boaters, Fishermen and Hunters -NYSDEC
- Avoiding Conflicts Between Waterfowl Hunters and Waterfront Property Owners -NYSDEC
- ASK -NYSDEC
- Dealing with Trespassers -Cornell Univ
- Recreational access and owner liability -Cornell Univ
- Post Deer Season- Time to Implement a New Game Camera Strategy
As a landowner, I can tell you first hand you will quickly expand your fan base in a less than desirable way by wanting to control your property in any configuration. Some folks feel or even insist they have a right to your place. You and I may have an adverse response to such arrogant entitlement thinking. Trust me it is out there as many are not shy about it, in fact boastful.
Diligence and willingness to press charges does pay off as it eventually reduces trespass once they learn you have a spine and will do what is needed to fully enjoy your place as the owner of the property. I can tell you that sending a certified notice against trespass or having the local sheriff deliver it in person is an effective way to get your point across. Posting, maintaining signs, the expense of cameras, batteries,and other items just to secure your place takes away from time and money otherwise spent enjoying it.
Poor behavior is not a one-way street, as we all know that one special landowner that tries to claim rights to other properties, accosts anyone that comes near their boundary or travels an adjacent road along their place. It makes for hostile or worse interactions. I have been privy to one property owner near me that claimed to own the county road that dissected her place. Unnecessary conflict and bad relations for all involved.
It is my well-learned opinion that we New Yorkers have easy access to thousands upon thousands of the best public hunting grounds to be found in our great nation. Our waterways are world-renowned and something to cherish. As ethical sportsmen and sportswomen, criminal trespass is an abhorrent act towards each other and especially landowners. As hunters, as fishermen, as landowners, there is much room to improve relationships with only a little effort and a large dose of mutual respect. We all deserve this from each other.
-MJ
© 2017 Joyner Outdoor Media
Turkey Reaping & Decoying- Unsafe? Irresponsible Danger? A Review…
Three years ago I penned my thoughts on Turkey Fanning, Turkey Reaping which has gained popularity by hunters and prominently shown on many Outdoor TV shows. The list includes some long-time veterans of the outdoor industry which I find surprising as most of those labeled with such a moniker have gotten there by being careful, conservative in their actions. Here’s a link to my original blog post: http://www.turkey-talk.com/tblog/?p=126
Back then I stepped up on one big soapbox and said my peace. No apologies, no retractions as my thoughts have not softened or changed much on the subject. I sure rattled a few cages and there was plenty of pushback and claims that I had no proof, no such foul play has ever occurred, totally safe, an elitist, and so on… I’ll step back up again…
Writing from a perspective of firm conviction, without conflicts of interests, or other detracting voices along comes the unfortunate truth of what I believed would be the inevitable outcome. Not against decoy use in general, but I find myself using them less as I find better ways to set up on an approaching gobbler. If there was ever something I would be all too happy to be wrong about, it would be this subject. I ran across several stories offering evidence of how unsafe it is, which sadly I’ll get to shortly.
It is not the perspective of “my way” is better than your way. Personally, I absolutely love roosting a gobbler on a big ridge, figure him out, call him in strutting to 30 paces and outsmart him for one single last time. Lots of hunters prefer hunting the edges of fields, I generally do not, but on occasion, I will if it is on the menu that day. Hunting with different people at times, the menu and properties change. You have some hunters that find Turkey Fanning, Turkey Reaping just as alluring as I find going about it the old time-honored ways of matching wits on the gobbler’s terms. In my last remark, It is not one way is better than the other. Very easy to imagine how much you would be on edge, your heart pounding in your throat while fanning up a big old gobbler. It has to be exciting, I get that. In all that excitement, and the snap shooting judgment that goes with it, how brief is the time to safely assess your sight picture, foreground, and background while the gobbler is making a hasty exit? In my opinion, it’s not worth the risk that comes with it.
Turkey Fanning, Turkey Reaping is absolutely effective and a high percentage way to kill wild turkeys. Plenty of outdoor hunt footage can be found on Youtube with one gobbler fooled after another using this approach. One is labeled as an elitist (bullying tactic) for decrying this method as foolhardy and unsafe for both the practitioner and unfortunate hunter who may come upon it. Is it worth that either may shoot each other or be shot inadvertently? It is reasonable to have disdain for the unsafe scenario it sets up. Since it’s resurgence has any gun safety instructors announced their endorsement of this practice? In the rolling terrain of upstate New York, you are at risk. Should you be out in the middle of a flat 200-acre corn field yet to be planted, not a concern. There are a few states that now ban this method, I suspect the more wide open terrain states will not, and would not view it as problematic there.
Propping up a turkey fan affixed to your barrel, worn on your head, or out in front while moving towards a strutting gobbler triggers him to dominate everything in the field. They come a running. Is this much different than going out on the first day of deer season wearing a deer costume with a pair of 140 class antlers on your head or as an attractive doe? I’ll buy you more than a few adult beverages if you allow me to take out an insurance policy on you with my name listed as a beneficiary.
Sure I have my preferred methods of how I hunt gobblers, I am not crazy about the choices of some hunters no more than they may of mine. But where legal, ethical, and in different places in the world where one can pursue wild turkeys, it is how it’s done, take it or leave it. I have no quarrel with that. When it comes to Turkey Fanning, Turkey Reaping it is my opinion that it is entirely unsafe with the exception of wide open fields and where rifles are illegal to use. Keep in mind we have hunters boasting of shotguns shooting effective patterns at eighty and ninety yards which is something not seen in a positive light in my view. I’ll leave that for another discussion.
As promised, and while climbing back down my ladder, here are the links to such unfortunate events including one in 2013 resulting in the death of a fellow turkey hunter. The second link is a follow-up article that mentions the fatality.
http://www.parsonssun.com/news/article_84ea535e-1fc7-11e7-bb26-9bfd6518961e.html?mode=jqm
I would be perfectly happy if no such proof existed, ate my humble pie, and called it a day. Some things would be better on being wrong about it. I am a nonbeliever in calling such events “accidents” and nearly all of them could be avoided, rare exceptions noted. A form of “reapercide” we can do without…
My thoughts extend to any hunter injured or losing their life while chasing game in our great forests. Such events are stark contrasts to the beauty and wonderment of spending time in the great turkey woods.
You may or may not agree with my comments, but I do believe we can agree that we all want to come back home at noon or the end of the day with great memories from the fields and woods we so love. Whether or not we agree on this topic, I would much rather buy you a craft beer and discuss as loudly as we care to rather than send my condolences.
Be safe, shoot straight, and live well
-MJ
© 2017 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
Poachers, Trespassers, and Thieves On Borrowed Time
In surfing the outdoor online forums, chat rooms, and social media sites, it is apparent that we have some cleansing of our ranks to do. The days of being too slick, too sly to be caught poaching, breaking game laws, trespassing and stealing may soon be made less commonplace. In short, a message to such unsavory individuals: You are on borrowed time.
The grand era of outrunning the law, jacking deer at night, trespassing at will is a testament to backwoods smarts, to being more clever than your pursuers. Some of the stories describe great inventiveness and ingenuity in not getting caught. A simple observation, not any form of admiration. No doubt that game wardens and ECO’s across the land would not describe these acts in any glowing terms.
It is a black eye to our fraternity of hunting brethren, to our time honored sport. The poaching of game at night, or out of season, the game hogs who harvest beyond legal limits, undermines our public resources and dollars in meeting game management goals. The trespassers who steal from and interfere with land owners that pay land taxes, put in their sweat equity, have their own land management goals or simply evoking their rights as property owners. Simply put, you are not entitled to another’s property. So many reports of tree stands, blinds, game cams stolen, or damaged. Unlike the era of running moonshine and jacking deer on the backroads, you’ll be more likely to enjoy the accommodations at the gray bar motel as you are risking it all on borrowed time.
The fantastic technologies as depicted in the last century and in the present: Star Trek, The Minority Report, NCIS, The Avengers, have become in some way partially true, or in many cases very real, and currently available. Should you be one of the unsavory individuals I describe, you are already caught, and you just don’t know it. It is no longer the ability to piece together a case against those that commit these offenses or to prosecute those in the future. Why some are not in handcuffs is a matter of available or accessible resources. Our NYSDEC does not simply call up the joint chiefs of staff at the Pentagon to get real time live satellite video (or retrieve previously recorded) to catch somebody out in the boonies spotlighting deer along with a loaded rifle out on the farmers corn fields.
We have much more available tech beyond robo decoys and CB radios. Now and in the foreseeable near future more of these technologies will become common tools for enforcement, and prevention. The same GPS location features in your smart phones, and Satellite imagery you use to pattern those big bucks are useful for finding two legged animals as well. Social media also provides investigative data as so many are prone to boasting/bragging. Those pictures contain metadata including time, date and location. You can equip your smart phone with a thermal imaging device for less than $300. IR and night vision cameras are now affordable to equip game wardens and other law enforcement. Drone technology is another tool that can fly sensor platforms you cannot hide from, even in the deepest woods. Big Data and Persistent Surveillance will be a game changer for even the most clever among us. That is a more involved topic and I recommend you search it online to gain a better understanding of it. It is currently in use in several major cities, and it is a matter of time to apply it to your neck of the woods.
The integration of these emerging technologies will be key to reigning in those that feel so embolden. These technologies that were once only available to our military are now finding their way to law enforcement and wildlife agencies. There will be a day that making a quick turn on an old logging road, or hiding out in a set of pines will no longer throw the local game warden off your trail. It may not be a drone with a thermal camera that tracks you to your truck, instead it may be big data that connects you to a debit card purchase at the taxidermist for your 160” deer when you reported a tag stating a lesser buck. Data logging your purchases at the feed store might give away your baiting practices, and so on. Your online pic holding a great gobbler might give away that it was shot before season or in a different state than you legally reported, and you freely disclosed it unknowingly. How happy might a landowner owner be to find out his stolen stands and game cameras were located with IOT location tags or to get an email from a cell enabled game camera with the thief’s face caught in brilliant HD quality along with the current GPS location coordinates (true story).
As I point out, there are technologies in place that will increasingly be used to thwart, lessen and curtail such bad acts. This comes at a price as we question our privacy and the power of government. However, when I hear a rifle sound off in the middle of the night as I did the evening before, the thought of law enforcement converging at the source of the rifle shot is something I might just be OK with.
-MJ
© 2016 Joyner Outdoor Media
Turkey Reaping & Decoying- Over The Top, Irresponsible Danger?
This is a subject I regret not getting to before the start of spring turkey season across our great nation this year. Having been subjected to a dangerous situation just days ago, my writings may appear preachy and from the perspective of a very tall soap box. If I rant on too much for your reading tastes, please forgive me.
When it comes to personal safety, I will not apologize. My hunting ethics may or may not be as yours, but I would assert there should be and there must be common ground in these matters. Whether this misguided practice of reaping is legal in your state or not, we have an obligation to our fellow hunters to put it bluntly- Not shoot them.
I personally use decoys in certain situations, mainly wide open hardwoods and fields with open approaches. The gobblers can see the decoys, and I am not surrounded by heavy cover nor encouraging stalking by others who would have no respect for themselves, me or my safety. Moving up to a field edge or on a ridge to gain a calling position is one thing. Stalking hen calls or crawling up to jump up and snap shoot is unsafe and wrong on so many levels.
I am sure that I am not making friends with the decoy industry or those who strongly disagree with my assertions here (advocates of reaping). As much as I like new gear, improved products, I cannot go along with $100-$400 decoys made to be ultra realistic or done as production line taxidermy. Seriously, if you put out a taxidermy mount or one of these über expensive decoys, how is one going to explain that away at trial for a shooting incident in the turkey woods. Is it that hard to phantom someone stalking your position, spotting your latest Acme 200 Stud Strutter decoy and promptly shoot it with you possibly in the path of the shot?
The latest fad, coined “turkey reaping” is way over the top. Simply put you wear a gobbler decoy on your head or in front of, or use a cardboard version held out in front of you and stalk directly towards a gobbler. Either you move in close or a dominate bird would charge at you to run you off. You then pull up your gun or snap shoot the gobbler at close range. Does it work? You bet, as there is plenty of footage to back up the claim. In that it is impressive.
This is where I stop and put on the brakes. Fact: the method/practice is unsafe, irresponsible, unethical, reckless and oh did I mention unsafe? A form of “reapercide” we can do without…
Think of this in terms of explaining this to a non-hunter or say a judge. Wearing and or displaying a gobbler decoy while in the field or turkey woods in simple terms means that you are willing to be the target that is the main objective of turkey season.
Let me paint a very common and plausible scenario. Let’s say you are set up below the lip of a ridge in open hardwoods or a rolling pasture. Been at it since sunrise and now it’s that special time when gobbler’s hens walk off, and they are searching again. You may have your acme decoy out maybe a hen or two. Just over rise not 35 yards away you spot the top of a fan. Little by little more of the über realistic decoy appears, you see the bright head, huge full fan, but not the lower third of the bird. Three hours waiting on this moment, you’re not going to let this one slip back over the edge and disappear as they always do. BOOM!! Congrats you just killed another hunter. Maybe if you had waited he might have jumped up and shot your cool gobbler decoy, and maybe you as well.
Do I hope this happens? Absolutely not, but I’d bet a crisp $100 bill that it will, sooner than later. Is there any justification to risk so much for any game animal? A gobbler? I think not. I can not nor will not accept the premise that one can offer a reasonable argument that the risks outweighs the rewards, that jumping up or snap shooting gives the shooter reasonable time or sight picture to ascertain a safe background before squeezing the trigger.
Do any of us need to punch a tag that bad that we’ll resort to risking our own safety or that of others? This is a worst case scenario for gun safety instructors and I have yet to see their endorsement of this practice.
This is all legal to do in many states, and it is always the case of playing catch up with new things as they come about. We as sportsmen do not require catching up for ethics and being diligent about gun/hunting safety. I ask each of you to ponder what I have brought up here and voice your opinions. If you come to the same or similar conclusion as I, let your wildlife agencies know, and hopefully ban this practice, save someone’s life or from suffering a life altering injury.
The satisfaction of fooling, outwitting a narly old gobbler to your setup based on good calling as needed, using great knowledge of the turkeywoods, and not needing all these gimmicks is a great experience to be had. We sorely need to get past the onslaught of irresponsible marketing of these companies and get back to basics.
As a side note, this was a difficult blog to write and post, as we have enough battles to wage with anti’s, and the likes of bows verses crossbows, etc. I routinely rep different companies and know that side of it as well. Business is hard enough these days, and fighting for our sport just as hard. We all get into discussions as which way is better than the other. When it comes to matters of safety and ethics, although a hard decision to speak out, it was a clear choice to make.
Be safe, shoot straight!
© 2014 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
Poacher / Trespasser -the alternate path to “Gates of Forever Roost”
My My how things quickly change……………
To be honest I was elated with yesterday’s hunt, and had one of those “I’m where I’m suppose to be, and all is ok in my world” type of days. This morning started out much the same, it is the late morning portion of today’s hunt that is the subject of this post. As you’ll read further it will quickly become a holier than thou rant. I am giving fair warning that I am climbing up on a big ol’ soap box, and I’ve got some things to say.
To preface this wonderful occurrence, I have to omit names of certain friends and families and the location of property in question. I am a guest on the property and the family we are good friends with are the only ones with permission to hunt it. Located somewhere 30 minutes north and east of our home in East Homer New York, it is a huge farm with lots of wild game, great land features, and one that I have had the privilege to step foot on. Todays hunt would start out on different properties and would yield little to go on as high winds made it difficult to hear anything on the roost. The young gentlemen that I hunted with had to head off to school, so I opted to hunt an upper portion of the property and set up in a location where birds had been seen loitering in previous days. I am not much for field hunting as most of my gobblers are dealt with in patches of woods or my favored ridges. Given that the woods are still very open,and high winds, I settled on a corner of a long field where several trails come in and out, and was a likely funnel for birds drifting through the area. From 8am until the end of the morning I would catch a gobble here and there in between wind gusts. Not sure where, but glad to hear them just the same.
Somewhere around 9:30-10AM I notice a recent year Black Chevy pickup stopping along the road and was obviously surveying the property I was on. I am certain my two decoys were spotted as they parked directly above me for a good 12-15minutes, whereas they would spend 8-10 minutes at the most working their way up the road. As the morning was creeping toward the end and well after 11AM, I notice two gobblers with visible swinging beards coming in hard and fast to my hard left. My guess would be 150+ yards out. Not sure if they came across the road or along the woods I was in, and swung high to gain a vantage point. I had heard gobbles behind me and to my left. As they closed to within 100-120 yards and almost as far from the wood line, BOOM!!!!! Yeah it rocked my world and how. The shot was withing 60-80 yards from where I was sitting. It was apparent that a trespasser had snuck in, knew where I was, and proceeded to cut me off in order to grab a bird. No idea how the trespasser figure they could beat me to the bird, and evade me, and not become the main participent to a hugh impending asswhooping I would be more than willing to dish out. I got up,and was yelling some words I’ll not repeat here. I did yell “I’m a hunter” in there somewhere in the profanity and ran to about where I thought the shot came from. The woods roll up and over,and apparently whoever it was, decided to leave quicker than they snuck in. Being a distance runner, I would have made good on catching them if I could have seen the direction they took. At the shot, both gobblers ran down the hill, passing me roughly 60 yards out, and doing their best rendition of the FTD man at top speed. Neither bird appeared injured or molested. I thought it odd that they hadn’t taken flight. I guess they thought the deeks might run along with them. I found myself shaking from being that upset and angry at what took place. The time and effort to play out a strategy, and patiently work the setup to its conclusion to be disrupted from unethical and unsafe decisions by those I would call and accuse of being poachers.
Not getting a bird that was so close is not really a big deal, it happens due to so many other valid things such as hens coming in, predators, farm equipment, making the wrong call, and or making a poorly timed movement. From my perspective of filling tags year after year, it is not a huge deal. Go back at it again the next day. What has me more than upset is that between us was an old logging road that the gobblers could have turned into had they decided to circle the decoys first. Not my first choice, but I have seen them do it in the past. Had that occurred, I would have been pointing a loaded firearm at a camouflaged hunter whom had snuck in, and that I was not aware of. The likelihood of picking them out in my foreground or background of my sight picture would be non existent. I could also have been the recipient of the same gun pointing, except I believe whomever it was, knew my position. The possibilities for a worse than bad day were through the roof when this person decided that property rights don’t matter, ethics don’t matter,and fundamentally, my safety or theirs did not matter. All this for a damn bird. Same goes for deer, elk, whatever your animal of choice is. As much as I love turkey hunting, and deer hunting, I would be mortified to be branded as a trespasser or for violating a pile of game laws, much less shooting someone. I have yet to see how the taking of any game species could be worth making such terrible choices while afield.
One of the very discussions I had with the two young hunters with me this morning, was that when I look at a set of spurs, a taxidermy mount or maybe a tail fan display, I want to remember the epic quality of the hunt, the things I sensed and experienced while in pursuit. I cannot wrap my brain around on slamming a trophy animal by shooting it out a truck window, or trespassing when I think no one is around, or some other unethical act. I view each animal I take as one of god’s creatures that provides me with the emotional aspects of the hunt, and table fare that my wife and I enjoy immensely. It is a matter of respect to hunt ethically and fairly. As a hunter we owe it to ourselves, the animals we pursue and to our fellow hunters as well. To the individual that did what they did today, you are not a hunter, you are not a sportsman. If anything your actions reflect a very negative light upon our sport, and as a fellow human being.
I know my wife will not be happy reading any of this, and I can say very little about it. I am grateful that the rash of terrible choices made by this person did not end up far worse, and for that matter it might have been best they evaded me in their hasty exit, otherwise I might be blogging this from jail. Blessings even in awful stories such as this one.
Thank you for enduring my rant and a less than positive post. I normally want to keep things on the bright side, but that is not the case today.
© 2014 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media
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